The Broken Wings by Khalil Gibran. (Book Review).
A Tale of Two Broken Hearts.
Book: The Broken Wings. Date of publication: 1912. Genre: Fiction. Pages: 100
The story of Broken Wings opens with the words, “My neighbors, you remember the dawn of youth with pleasure and regret its passing; but I remember it like a prisoner who recalls the bars and shackles of his jail.” Thus, informing the readers that it’s a sad story. The story is set in Beirut, Lebanon, which as the narrator calls it, is the most beautiful place on earth. It is the story of love, longing and suffering that ends only after death. Narrator (Khalil Gibran) who goes nameless in the story falls in love with Selma, the daughter of Farris Effandi. He is blinded by her beauty and spirituality that is a virtue with the oriental woman as narrator recalls multiple times in the story. Selma, who is calm and quiet person, also gets attracted towards him immediately.
Khalil Gibran is master of his craft, especially when it comes to the figurative language and description of a scene or his characters. His words are pure poetry full of metaphors, similies and personifications. Reader is touched deeply when he brings the world of imagination before his/her eyes in such a style that reader cannot escape its magic. His language is clear and his choice of words to describe feelings, emotions, events and weather is very impressive and accurate to the point of perfection. Topics of love, life, death and spirituality are all around in this story, The Broken Wings. He has also a keen eye on the social issues of his days and moral corruption of the church cannot hide from his observation. The question of women’s oppression is dealt with in a very solid way. That makes one think about the real situation, no matter wherever they are in what year they are living.
Back to the story now, in just matter of a week both the lovers are walking through the imaginative universe looking in each other’s eyes while sitting in the garden of Effandi’s beautiful house. Their talk is a poetical expression in praise of each other. The narrator becomes restless for Selma, his eternal love when he is not around her. He becomes a frequent visitor to Selma’s house. He meets with his love of life and chats with Farris Effandi, who it turns out to be a friend of his father and who talks to him fondly about their friendship.
Their love is met with disaster when Bishop sends the word for Effandi to come to him. Her father goes to him as a healthy and optimistic man but returns with a collapsed heart. The Bishop wants his daughter for his nephew, Mansour Bey. Bishop’s nephew is a scoundrel whom both the father and daughter do not like. But the sad reality is Farris Effandi cannot refuse to Bishop’s wish as it would be strongly against the cultural and religious system of the day. The marriage between Selma and Mansour Bey results in the suffering in for both the lovers as now they cannot meet to see each other anymore.
The narrator is now living a lonely life counting the miseries and rebutting the cultural and religious system of the day which has seized from his love Selma. He speaks his thoughts loud to the reader complaining about the cultural and religious system that has been corrupted by those who use it as a tool of oppression. He highlights the plight of women in a patriarchal society. He reminds the readers through words of Selma and his own thoughts about the bitter reality of how society with the help of religious opportunism and cultural beliefs has oppressed and exploited the women as a mere commodity at the service of man. He also denounces the Bishop and his position in the society who is corrupt and practicing not what he preaches.
The narrator desires for an escape with Selma when she on occasions come stealthily to meet him at a temple near her father’s house but that does not happen because Selma thinks it’s over now and she won’t put the life of her love in danger. The story is full of religious symbols of Christianity, Islam and Greeks. The story ends with the death of Selma and her newly born baby hoy who dies only after few hours of birth. It is a story of love and loss that is the fate of narrator. It is a tale of two broken hearts. Story ends with these lines; “Right here; I placed the daughter upon him and upon his daughter’s breast rests her child, and upon all I put the earth back with shovel.” Then I said, “In this ditch you have also buried my heart.”
The Broken Wings by Khalil Gibran is a must read if someone is interested in poetry, oriental setting, legend stories and tells of love and separation and feminism.
